Bring The Heat

45. The Stampede of Jewel Street (GOJS ARC 16)

Robin scanned her surroundings in a panic. The knight was here... but where? She had already lost sight of it! Her eyes followed each elephant in circles, and paired with the deafening stomping, she began to feel very disoriented.

Just then, she was struck hard in the back! Robin stumbled forward, but caught herself before she could be swallowed by the flurry of crushing footfall surrounding her. A glimpse of the knight shot past her as she rebalanced herself.

Robin raised her fists in desperation. She had no idea what she could do, but god be damned she was gonna fight! She shot out a thick vine to try and trip the elephants, but they just tore it with the sheer force of their movement.

The knight appeared in front of her, and delivered a heavy shove to her chest. Robin staggered back, barely stopping herself before she was crushed to a paste against the ground. She was so close, the thundering footfall almost felt like it was inside her head!

She shot to her feet quickly. She needed to do something. Fast.

The overpowering urge to curl up into a ball and hope the problem would go away or at least kill her quickly shot through her brain, but she fought it back. She focused on her breathing... short, steady breaths in the whirlwind of air around her. She collapsed to the ground as her feet were swept out from under her by a strong, armoured leg. Short, steady breaths as she picked herself back up.

Her surroundings, other than the elephants. The long road home ahead... the long path she had walked behind her. Thinking of everything past the elephants seemed to make them quieter. A punch to her face. It was strong, but she took it well. She was used to the feeling. Short, steady breaths.

To her left and her right, Robin observed the buildings the elephants had smashed through. Shit, they were barely even standing! Wait... that was it!

Robin stopped observing and focusing on her breathing. The stomping got louder again, and she winced at the sound. Blood ran down her face from her nose, but she was focused, determined. It was time to retaliate.

Robin closed her eyes, and formed two massive, thick, long bamboo sticks to either side. They each collided with the fronts of the buildings, smashing into them but holding them. That was, until the elephants charged into them, throwing them aside and crushing them effortlessly!

As the buildings began to collapse onto the street, the knight stopped halfway through an attack to retreat, but Robin didn't allow it. A web of vines tightly grasped the knight's arm, holding it still as it tried desperately to struggle free, but couldn't.

The teamwork of the knight and the motorcyclist was a great strength, but showing their reliance on it was a weakness.

The buildings on either side of them crumbled slowly, and began to topple perilously towards Robin and her captor. As she predicted, the elephants seemed to stand still suddenly, parting slightly to let something through - the motorcyclist. Once more, his spear shot through Robin's body, dragging her down the road and away from the knight, who escaped from the collapse at the last moment.

But Robin wasn't done yet.

She grabbed the pole of the spear, and dragged herself further down it, impaling herself more. She cried out primally in pain and hatred, and pulled herself further and further along until she reached the man.

Quickly, Robin shot out a small but strong vine that looped around the back of the man's head, then shot into the front wheel. His head was dragged onto it, bringing the bike to a neck-breaking halt and launching the two of them through the air.

Robin hit the ground hard, and lay back, breathing heavily. She gripped the spear to pull it out, before realizing it would actually be easier to just push it all the way through. She screamed in pain as she did it, patching herself up crudely as she lay panting, sprawled out on the road.

Then she heard it again. The approaching thunderous stomping.

In horror, Robin lifted her head to see that one elephant had shaken off the collapse and was now charging directly towards her!

She staggered to her feet. There was nowhere to run, and she couldn't kill this thing... her head shot back to the road behind her. Just about 100 metres away laid the man, face scraped up but still clinging to life.

'These animals aren't just coming from nowhere,' Robin thought to herself, 'he controls them. I'll bet he makes em too! So if I kill him...'

She span around and dashed towards his body, but stumbled to the ground in pain. From the crash, her foot seemed badly broken... but there was no time to fix that now!

As fast as she could, Robin limp/hopped down the road towards the man's body. The elephant was growing ever closer as she drew her gun. Killing... she had never killed before. Behind her adrenaline and will to survive, she felt almost nauseous at the idea, but still she pressed on.

She took a shot, and the gun almost popped right out of her hand from recoil! The bullet hit the road far from her target.

As she dashed over, Robin took 4 more shots, all missing terribly. She was almost at the man's body now... but the elephant was right behind her. She had one bullet left, and she couldn't afford to waste it!

15 metres. 10! 5! The elephant's stampeding was deafening, and sounded just as close as when she was being circled tightly. It was directly behind her!

As soon as she got near the man, she slid across the ground, stopping right at him. She pressed the barrel to his head, just as the elephant charged into her... and fired.

A massive force slammed into Robin's back! But this... this was not the elephant.

A massive cascade of dead bodies cascaded down onto her, landing in huge piles around her. In her hands, she held what remained of her enemy's head. Everywhere she looked was violence... death.

Robin screamed in pure terror, traumatized by the scene around her. She screamed and cried until her throat closed up and then some more, completely frozen.

"Oh my god," she heard, "oh my god!"

The voice was relieved, joyful, ecstatic... the voice was Mint's.

Mint ran over, wading through the bodies to pull Robin into a mighty embrace. She stroked her hair as she clutched her.

"I thought you were dead... we thought you were dead..." she moaned, overwhelmed.

Eventually, she noticed Robin's silence, and picked her up, carrying her away from the pile of bodies as she sobbed in her arms. Ben limped over too, embracing both of them tightly.

-(THE KNIGHT)-

From a distant alleyway, the knight watched the three hug. She seethed with hatred... they were all alive, happy, uncaring. They had just fucking killed Alan.

Her breaths wavered with spite. She was going to avenge her friend. Those three, those delectables, they were making their home stretch now. But they wouldn't be out of Jewel Street before nightfall... and come blackout, they'd all be dead.